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E. A. Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death: Symbol vs. Allegory?
Tamari Cheishvili
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2015.09.003
Independent Scholar, NY, USA
The paper is concerned with E. A. Poe’s unique symbolic method as manifested in his tale The Masque of the Red Death. It offers a picture of the general state of critical treatment of the supposed opposition between allegory and symbol. I present a historical overview of how the distinction between the literary terms arose, tracing the roots of the issue to the end of the 18th century and showing its development over the next two centuries. The second section of the paper is devoted to the analysis of The Masque in the light of the theoretical background provided in the opening section. The Masque is interpreted in terms of Poe’s modulation of “closed” and “open” symbolism by focusing on aspects of the story that relate to the use of numbers, colors, and time.
symbolic method, allegory, allegory-symbol opposition, closed symbol, open symbol
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